Manipulating ions requires a lot of current. Drop an AA battery to a soup and nothing remarkable happens quickly, but lick the same battery and you will definitely feel it immediately.
If you do it while something sour/salty is in your mouth, your tongue may get confused, since it's only prepared to detect 5 flavors plus hot and cold, and it may simply assigns the extra feeling to the strongest sour/salty/umami taste currently experienced.
The electronics is probably just to cut the current when the two chopsticks touch to prevent short circuit.
Manipulating ions requires a lot of current. Drop an AA battery to a soup and nothing remarkable happens quickly, but lick the same battery and you will definitely feel it immediately.
If you do it while something sour/salty is in your mouth, your tongue may get confused, since it's only prepared to detect 5 flavors plus hot and cold, and it may simply assigns the extra feeling to the strongest sour/salty/umami taste currently experienced.
The electronics is probably just to cut the current when the two chopsticks touch to prevent short circuit.
There are similar articles from a few years ago, like this: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a15702/simulatin...